McAuley High School softball program ends with tears and memories

A look at some of the top softball teams and individuals returning for the 2018 season in Greater Cincinnati
The Enquirer/Adam Baum

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McAuley High School softball coach Karen Wiesman, left, and Mercy coach Elizabeth Mahon, second from right, receive ground rules prior to their game on April 17, 2015.(Photo11: The Enquirer/Adam Baum)Buy Photo

COLLEGE HILL – Some things are special and meaningful in such a way that when they end, it’s supposed to hurt. It’s a great reminder of how important it was.

That’s how Karen Wiesman feels about McAuley. The longtime softball coach graduated from McAuley in 1992, came back to coach in 1997, and has stuck around because she loves it.

The day after McAuley played the last softball game in school history – an 8-6 loss to Fairfield in the sectional tournament May 9 – the emotions were still fresh for Wiesman.

“I was just so proud yesterday,” Wiesman said through tears. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go out any other way, besides winning last night. They just played their hearts out. They got down and they came back and kept fighting.

“It was hard to get emotional because I was just so proud of them and not thinking it was the end because I’m hoping next year to see them come back again.”

When Mercy McAuley opens in the fall, Wiesman, who’s a teacher at St. James White Oak, hopes she can continue her softball coaching career with the Wolves.

It’s not hard to see why she wants that.

“Number one, it’s the players that keep you coming back,” she said. “The girls keep you coming back each year.”

You can call her ‘Scoop’

When Wiesman was a freshman at McAuley, she earned a nickname that’s stuck with her to this day.

At that time, varsity head coach Velma Lehmann was looking for a catcher and Wiesman thought it sounded fun, so having never caught before, she volunteered.

“I played JV that year and the JV assistant coach Sean Young was walking behind the pitchers who were throwing and one of the pitchers was very erratic and I kind of saved his life so ever since then he called me ‘Scoop’ and it’s kind of stuck,” said Wiesman.

The nickname even followed her to college when she played at Northern Kentucky University, and “it’s kept going.”

It’s the friendships and memories from a place like McAuley that mean the most.

Like Mercy does to so many, McAuley means the world to so many women. It’s why Wiesman came back. It’s why her assistant coach, Pam Meiners, who’s also a McAuley grad, has been by her side all 15 years she’s coached the Mohawks.

“The first several years it was kind of trying as a 20-something, they think I’m a kid and I’m a female also. There were trying years but I had to work through that.”

What helped was remembering her time at McAuley and how much that meant to her.

“I just think it’s the camaraderie, the friends that I made,” said Wiesman. “I was kind of a shy kid, kind of quiet. Everybody says I’m not shy but I really am kind of introverted, but once I get to know people, and I got to know people right off the bat from different schools and different areas and I got to be friends with a lot of people. I knew they had my back and I had theirs.”

When Mercy McAuley opens in the fall, things will be different. It will be the end of two high schools and the beginning of a new one. Even though the end hurts, Wiesman's excited and hopeful for what the new school can be.